Tower in the Ash
by reminiscent-afterthought
Summary: In Kaiba's attempt to take over Industrial Illusions in the midst of Pegasus' death, Crocketts and Isono find themselves seeing quite a bit of each other...and developing a bit of an understanding.


**A/N:** Written for the YGO pairings contest, Lackyshipping (Crocketts/Isono). Context wise, this is set before Duellist Kingdom and mostly manga verse (with a change regarding the twins). For those only familiar with the anime, Yami Bakura kills Pegasus at the end of Duellist Kingdom when he takes the Millennium Eye. This is a "what if the Tenma brothers don't take over the company – not sure if they actually do – and it falls to poor Crocketts instead?"

And the bit about the end with the suggestion of a new job was taken from one of the video games, where Isono is seen working for another company.

Enjoy!

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**Tower in the Ash**

Industrial Illusions had long since lost its lustre, and as Kaiba Corporation brought out the assets that kept it on its feet, Crocketts watched the company he was once proud to work within crumble into the dust of the past like the man who'd founded it.

_Pegasus_…he'd been a character till the end – or the end he'd known. Pegasus had always had that air of knowing more, so much so Crocketts wondered often if his job was just to keep the seat of advisor warm – but he hadn't minded. Pegasus had a brilliant mind, he thought, and it had been an honour and a dream to watch that mind at work.

It was a nightmare, now, watching that work slip away into oblivion. But he had no choice but to sell to Kaiba Corporation, else they would have succumbed to less appreciative sharks long ago. Kaiba Seto, at least, understood the value of progressing the Duel Monsters game, and he was the one who'd created the duel disks to further that experience. Selling him patents for cards and ideas never released to the public was a lesser evil than surrendering them to men who saw them only as a game that would soon die out.

And Kaiba Corporation was keeping it alive: new duel disks, new tournaments – the things Pegasus could have done if he'd still lived. Except he didn't, and his body now lay deep beneath the earth with an empty socket and an emptier love and the company that had been his life seemed doomed to follow.

'It's easily avoided.'

Crocketts frowned at his companion. After the unexplained death of Pegasus many a company had come forth to buy out Industrial Illusions in its entirety, and even Kaiba Corporation was no exception. Crocketts had relented only enough to sell a few patents: enough to keep them on their feet for a month or two more – but the entire company? Never – and there were many a staff that agreed, the staff that stayed with the slowly collapsing walls and crumbling towers.

'That won't be happening, Isono,' he said flatly. 'Patents and half-formed ideas we can part with, but our name makes our company and I will not sign it off.' Even to Kaiba Corporation who, by buying their patents, had kept Industrial Illusions on its shaky feet for a few months more.

Isono frowned as well. Like Crocketts was – or had been – an advisor to Pegasus, so was Isono to Kaiba Seto, Kaiba Corporation's CEO. The difference was that Kaiba still lived and gave the orders, while Pegasus had departed the world without even a word as to how to move on. The company had fallen to Crocketts – and fallen it had. He was not Pegasus, and could never hope to equal that great mind. But he knew the wishes of Pegasus better than anyone, he felt, and Pegasus despite outward appearances would never sell his company to Kaiba Corporation, or anyone else.

Their staring contest ending in a sigh from Isono. 'I'll tell Kaiba-sama you won't be persuaded then.'

Crocketts hoped that would be the last he heard about the matter.

**.**

'You have forced my hand.'

Crocketts stared at the man standing in front of his desk, back straight as a board. 'Excuse me?'

'A message from Kaiba-sama.' Isono took a deep breath, then repeated: 'You have forced my hand.'

'I…see.' Crocketts leaned back. 'Are you to drag me out of this chair, kicking and screaming?' That wouldn't be so bad, he thought. At least he knew then there was nothing that could be done, instead of struggling senselessly.

'Kaiba-sama is a reasonable man,' Isono said in reply, though it did not address his question but rather the thoughts that sat beneath them. 'If you were to sign over the company to him, he would save this place and yourself as well.'

'Myself?' Crocketts chuckled at that. 'That does not sound like something Kaiba-san would say. If I'm not to be an asset to his company he'll put me on the streets and I'll be powerless to stop him.'

Isono frowned. Crocketts noticed he saw a lot of Isono's frowns, for whatever reason. Maybe it was because they always met doing business. Either it was Kaiba having some sort of grudge against Pegasus, or it was Kaiba trying to take over the company of his own rival. It had crossed his mind – and he was sure it had crossed Isono's mind as well, that both companies would have been all the better if they'd worked together from the onset – but maybe they, or their aspirations, had been too different, because that had never come even close to happening.

And now Crocketts had nothing to offer that Kaiba would need. A partnership would be completely useless to him. He laughs to himself. He hadn't been one for laughing before, but that was before running a company beyond him after his CEO's gruesome and untimely death had fallen on to his shoulders.

He knew there were others out there who didn't care about the company at all, but about vengeance. Even the two orphans Pegasus had hand-picked to be his heirs had vanished into the underground, seeking blood. But that blood was, amongst other things, at the cost of the light Pegasus had lit, that lantern he'd made and hung outside his home – and now it was crumbling away and the last of the oil drops were splattering uselessly onto the ash…

'Kaiba-sama isn't so cold a man as you have seen,' Isono said, deliberating the words just as much as Crocketts deliberated his thoughts. 'Just as I am sure Pegasus-san isn't the sort of man he appeared.'

Crocketts understood what he meant, and it was true – oh so very true. But it changed nothing at this point. 'What does Kaiba-san propose?' he asked.

'A duel,' was the reply, and in retrospect, Crocketts should have seen that one coming.

**.**

Crocketts hadn't duelled many times; more often he was the MC for duelling events hosted by Pegasus, but he had a deck and he knew how to play. Quite well, considering he'd narrated the duels of numerous champions – and even Pegasus himself. Isono – who Crocketts was only mildly surprised to find was the opponent Kaiba had in mind – was much the same. The only difference was that Kaiba Corporation hadn't launched as large a duelling tournament as Pegasus had of yet. Kaiba had, surprisingly, not come to watch; instead it was a personal duelling platform within Industrial Illusions where the duel took place.

Crocketts wasn't fool enough to believe the home field advantage or extra exposure gave him any benefit at all. And, unlike Isono's calm demeanour, his own hands shook as he shuffled his opponent's cards.

But once the duel began, he lost himself in them, lost himself in the countless strategies he'd seen and the cards he'd chosen for himself. Lost himself in the walls he'd build to defend and the single tower behind that, climbing up. Lost himself in his opponent's field, where a small army arose: each seeming small and insignificant and surrounding a larger, stronger piece just like his own strategy did, before the difference clicked together in the end.

It was a subtle difference, but it mattered: it mattered a lot. Each of those four weaker monsters supported the fifth directly, until that fifth was untouchable in the clouds. His monsters were a wall that couldn't be broken down and behind that the tower stood on its own. In a way, each of those fields represented the companies they worked for: Industrial Illusions as it was before Pegasus' death, and Kaiba Corporation as Kaiba Seto had rebuilt it from his stepfather's grave. And, for a moment, it was a beautiful scene they could both lose themselves within – and then his tower crumbled, and without the tower, the wall that surrounded it was nothing.

It seemed almost an anticlimactic end when Crocketts watched his life point meter drop to zero and heard only a soft "ping" in response – but the climax had passed before that, passed when the tower crumbled and fell, when Pegasus died. And he was the wall trying to keep it all together anyway, but failing, slowly failing, until even he couldn't stay anymore.

'You lack the conviction to support a company by yourself,' Isono explained as he took off his duel disk. 'So do I, but that is why I continue to work under Kaiba-sama. I'm sure you would have done the same had Pegasus-san still lived,' Here, he bowed his head, 'but you need someone above you, to sit in that position of leadership.' The deck came out, cards shining with their newness but still the perfect representation of his heart and soul –

And Crocketts believed his cards were the same. Telling him he'd been trying too hard to do something he simply couldn't do. Telling him his tower was already gone, and a wall could not become a tower no matter how hard it tried to fill that empty seat.

'Do you think Kaiba-san has a space for me?' he asked.

'Even now,' Isono's eyes softened, spelt out something Crocketts couldn't quite define, 'you don't want to leave this company.' He blinked, and the usual hardness within those eyes returned. Professional, like all other encounters, and discussions, they had. Two men who could have been very similar or very different, and only by swapping their fates would one really know. 'I'll put in a word for you. Though Kaiba-sama tends to only listen to his own words.'

That sounded remarkably like Pegasus, who had often in his life made Crocketts feel his position was redundant. It was almost ironic that he'd fully recognised the extent of that position at the time he'd lost it – because he'd agreed to Kaiba's terms: that if he lost, he'd sign over Industrial Illusions to Kaiba Corporation.

And he had lost. But somehow, that duel with Isono had showed him there was still a future for Industrial Illusions.

**.**

Several months later, Crocketts found himself sitting at his old desk again – the one he'd inhabited when Pegasus had still been alive and sitting on his throne. He'd been quite flabbergasted at Kaiba's plans – and if he'd known them earlier, he wouldn't have put up quite so much of a fuss. Kaiba had essentially organised a partnership between the two companies, taken over the main decision-making processes and figure-head position for Industrial Illusions, and left Crocketts to run the day to day things like he'd always done.

And with the full financial backing of Kaiba Corporation, Industrial Illusions was able to pick itself out of its slump with ease. Designs were no longer patented and brought by Kaiba Corporation: they were handed over, and profits from the productions and sales were split right down to the last person involved. All in all, it was the sort of partnership that could have come out of those companies much earlier if they'd tried – but it was working now, and Crocketts still had his job and the Industrial Illusions that Pegasus had so loved.

He didn't see Isono much during that time, but one day he showed up unexpectedly at his desk, looking tall and sombre as he always did. There was something strange in his voice as he spoke though, something Crocketts could easily pick out despite the time that had passed since they'd last talked face to face.

And the greeting wasn't entirely professional as well. 'You look…younger.'

Still, Crocketts took it. 'I feel younger,' he confessed. 'Like a large weight has fallen off my shoulders.' He offered a chair.

Isono took it. 'Thank you.'

And then they stared at each other. Crocketts _was_ glad to see him, but he'd expected another business encounter which it didn't appear to be. Nor did it appear to be entirely social – for social endeavours did not work well in an office setting at all. Except for one. 'Tea?' he offered.

'Thank you,' Isono said again, and Crocketts rang for some tea. It was a simple task, since Isono had come to his office so many times in the past, before the takeover. And the tea came quickly. They both sipped lightly at it. It wasn't until his cup was half empty did Isono speak again. 'I wanted to ask you something…about our duel.'

He sounded uncertain about something, and Crocketts ran through that duel in his mind, wondering what it was. He remembered it clearly: every move, every word that had passed between them, every look… And when Isono did not elaborate immediately, he latched on to a thought and spoke it. 'You expressed surprise about my attachment to this company.' He looked at the other. 'Is this about that?'

'In a sense.' Isono drank a little more tea: slowly, measuredly. 'I have been offered another job. At another company. Kaiba-sama says he is perfectly willing to pay my benefits and find another to take over my duties.'

'I see.' Or he would, with some more information and understanding. 'You're not clear on your level of attachment to Kaiba Corporation.' He drained his own cup. 'I have a proposition.'

'That we duel.' And Isono half-smiled. So did Crocketts. They both saw the humour in that situation: the reversal.

And it promised to be another telling duel.


End file.
